How To Find The Best Fares

October 15, 1995|By JAMES T. YENCKEL

Amid the confusion over airline ticket pricing, how do savvy travelers find the lowest fare?

* Keep alert for air fare wars, especially any time there's a flight in your future, and be prepared to act quickly before all the cheap seats are sold. For many travelers, this means watching for airline ads in the daily newspaper. Look also for special promotions, such as Southwest's ``Friends Fly Free'' or American's ``Weekend BreakAAway.'' Parson's magazine, Best Fares, compiles many pages of such promotions monthly. For information: (800) 635-3033.

* Consult a travel agent. An experienced travel agent has the expertise to search the computer for the lowest available fare -- or, when necessary, to thwart the airline industry's Saturday stay requirement by issuing so-called back-to-back tickets. (In effect, you buy two discounted tickets, one for your departure and one for your return, and throw away the unused half of each. Two discounted tickets often are cheaper than a single full-fare ticket.)

But, Doris Davidoff, vice president of Belair Travel in Bowie, Md., points out, finding the best fare takes time, and travel agents no longer make as much money from commissions selling tickets as they once did. As a result, agents generally are more likely to put in their best effort for a good customer rather than for a stranger. An airline never alerts ticket-holders to cheaper fares, but many travel agents do.

* Be flexible. Travel during off- peak periods and consider alternate routings that include connecting flights.

* Don't forget the no-frills airlines on the somewhat limited routes they serve.

* Consider consolidator or charter flights. This is particularly true for international travel, although some consolidators and charters offer domestic flights. A consolidator buys cheap seats in bulk on regularly scheduled airlines and markets the seats to travel agents and the public. A charter operator hires a plane and tries to fill it by keeping the price low. Travel agents handle both types of travel, and consolidators and charters advertise in Sunday travel sections to the general public.